SSENSE and Element AI Partner to Release a Rich Collection of E-Commerce Images to Advance AI Research

8.6.2018 13:00 | Business Wire

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SSENSE, a pioneering fashion platform with global reach known for its
directional retail mix and original content; and Element AI, an
artificial intelligence company that turns cutting-edge research into
scalable solutions that make businesses safer, stronger, and more agile;
are announcing the release of FashionGen, a rich collection of hundreds
of thousands of proprietary images from the SSENSE e-commerce platform
for this year’s European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV) taking
place in Munich, Germany. They will jointly sponsor a $2,000 CAN grand
prize image generation challenge that utilizes the collection of
e-commerce images photographed in the SSENSE in-house studio. Element AI
scientists will manage the challenge which is a great opportunity for
the academic and research communities to work with a well-labeled and
detailed archive to better understand how artificial intelligence can
positively influence the future of fashion. Interested parties should
register to participate at www.fashion-gen.com
to gain access to the challenge and collection of e-commerce images.
Approved participants will be granted permissions within 24 hours of
registration and the collection of e-commerce images are exclusively for
non-commercial, research purposes only.

The ECCV is a biennial research conference, alternating with ICCV
(International Conference on Computer Vision). It is one of the
preeminent gatherings to discuss and imagine the possibilities in
computer vision. The event will be taking place in Munich, Germany from
September 8th through September 14th with our
dedicated workshop being held on September 14th. The deadline
to submit for the ECCV challenge is July 31st. For questions,
please email fashion-gen@elementai.com

The availability of large-scale datasets such as ImageNet and the use of
deep learning methodology to learn a hierarchy of visual features have
been critical to the advancement and recent progress in many research
and industrial applications of artificial intelligence. By making this
collection of e-commerce images available to the research community, the
goal is to facilitate more breakthroughs and continue the benefit
derived through open access to quality data.

"AI has the potential to power distinctive customer experiences across
our online and physical touch points. A key pillar of the AI strategy at
SSENSE is finding and interacting with the right set of partners such as
Element AI,” said Vincent Ho-Tin-Noe, Vice President of Product
Management for SSENSE. “We are very excited to support fundamental AI
research by opening a collection of labeled images consisting of the
latest clothing, bags, shoes and accessories to the scientific
community. We look forward to seeing the breakthroughs in AI research
that this collection will enable.”

“Fashion is in the midst of a technological revolution and Machine
Learning is key to unlocking a new universe of possibilities,” said
Element AI CEO Jean François Gagné. “New technologies are within reach
and are now closer to reality thanks to the comprehensive collection of
e-commerce images SSENSE is releasing and Element AI’s ability to layer
our advanced computer vision and machine learning abilities over the
data. ECCV is the right conference to launch and see what’s possible
within the Open Machine Learning community.”

About SSENSE

SSENSE is a Montréal-based fashion platform with global reach. Founded
in 2003, SSENSE is pacing the vanguard of directional retail with its
mix of luxury, streetwear, and avant-garde labels. Currently serving 136
countries, generating an average of 53 million monthly page views, and
achieving high double digit annual growth since its inception, its field
of focus has grown beyond that of a typical e-commerce entity as it
explores the nexus of content, commerce, and culture. SSENSE is a member
of the AI-powered Supply Chains Supercluster (SCALE.AI), a business-led
consortium building intelligent supply chains through artificial
intelligence and robotics sponsored by the Government of Canada. More
than just a retailer, SSENSE is becoming a cultural protagonist in its
own right.

About Element AI

Element AI advances cutting-edge research and turns it into scalable
solutions that make your business safer, stronger, and more agile.
Element AI is headquartered in Montreal, Quebec with offices in Toronto,
London, Singapore and Seoul and is funded by leading investors including
BDC Capital, Data Collective, Fidelity Investments Canada, Hanwha
Investment, Intel Capital, Microsoft Ventures, National Bank, NVIDIA GPU
Ventures, Real Ventures, and Tencent. http://www.elementai.com